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Solving the Women in Tech Problem

The numbers don’t lie; women are severely underrepresented in the tech startup world. With back-to-school season around the corner, marketing strategist Ja-Naé Duane suggests that getting more women interested in math, science and technology starts with some re-education.

Image via ja-nae.net/blog

I was first turned on to the controversy around women in tech by a Wall Street Journal Venture Capital blog post, which notes that only about 11 percent of U.S. firms with venture-capital backing in 2009 had female CEOs or founders.

The post’s author, Shira Ovide, goes on to discuss the different ways that women in the tech industry are trying to rectify the disparity between this gender gap.

For example, media entrepreneur Rachel Sklar has been actively lobbying to bring more attention to the issue with her Change the Ratio campaign, while technology conference TED has created a female-centric offshoot called TEDWomen.

Style Coalition founder Yuli Ziv says she prefers to encourage women to make use of the already existing, male-dominated forums out there; while blogger Claire Willet has called for the whole discussion to be rendered obsolete.

As one commentator on her blog put it, the concept of “women in tech” should be as unremarkable as “women who vote.”

Which means that you have those who believe the problem is best handled by having more women-centered activities, those who feel the solution lies in encouraging women to actively engage in existing opportunities, and those who don’t believe there is any problem at all.

Don’t blame it on the player

Which brings me to yet another view, expressed by TechCrunch founder and co-editor Michael Arrington.

In a response to the WSJ blog post, Arrington lashes out at the finger-pointing and accusations of sexism directed toward him and his peers and suggests that the shortage of women in the tech industry is due to a lack of initiative among women to become entrepreneurs.

One only has to look at recent statistics to see that this controversial suggestion just ain’t true. (Though to be fair, Arrington wrote his missive prior to the release of most of the statistics showing women entrepreneurship is on the rise.) But I agree with his point that placing the blame on men doesn’t do anything to improve the situation.

Blame it on the game

So why the dearth of women in technology?

Claire Willett believes the problem starts at the elementary school level, where girls who may or may not show a proclivity towards math and science are discouraged from working at it.

A study by the research firm Campos backs this up, and goes further in saying that this discouragement lasts well into university. College women are steered away from more demanding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curricula, most likely due to the stereotype that women are inferior in “male”-dominated disciplines like math.

Leslie Poston, a mentor with the Strong Women in Tech initiative, believes that mentorship needs to start early. In her view, girls should be encouraged to excel in computer and science classes from elementary school right through university.

Girls, just do it

The best way for women to change the gender balance in tech is for more of us to take matters into our own hands. That’s essentially what angel investor Eileen Burbidge says in her TechCrunch post on the topic.

“I don’t think most men in tech are adverse to working with more women (quite the contrary),” Burbidge writes, “but I don’t see enough women putting themselves forward or taking advantage of opportunities available.”

Reach out, get to know people, and do not take no for an answer. There is no use in waiting for opportunities to appear. Make it happen yourself.

But trying hard to see the positive – there is a shift happening with the generations. Tech being a younger industry class has 5X the number of female CEOs than does the older blue chip Fortune 1000. In 20 years it will surely be much higher…

It’s our problem so we (women) need to take ownership of the problem AND fixing it. Not saying we don’t need men to make that happen (especially powerful men like TC’s Arrington) but WTF? I went out on a limb last week on FundHer and despite reaching out to tons of people (including LOTS of badass women in tech), the only real feedback I got came from men (BIG shout out to Brad Feld btw).

So where are the women? Am I the only one who first thought it was about men like Arrington and Fred Wilson having the balls to say what I was thinking ONLY to realize how wrong I was. And sadly, days later to continue realizing how LITTLE women seem to really care.

Maybe it is generational. I’m 41. Could it be that it’s just women my age that feel this way? SOMEONE speak up. Share your thoughts? How do you REALLY feel? No BS PC answers or offline comments you’re not willing to say in public. I’ve put my reputation (& success) on the line (along with my $) by being honest via @FundHer. Ladies…WTF?

I think all of the variables are valid – Nature/Nurture, etc. – but only to a certain degree; there is no smoking gun here.

I’d say it comes down to interest level; genuinely interested human beings have high associated motivations – research, involvement, leadership, etc. – you really can’t stop a group of motivated and interested people.

So, that begs the question, what is causing the lack of interest with women as it relates to tech and/or leading in tech-related activity/business?

Interestingly, we aren’t asking ourselves, “what are we going to do about the lack of male representation in ‘xyz’ industry.” I think there is an interesting cultural question there as well – why do we care about equality in one industry and not in another? Power of the industry as it relates to money, political influence, etc.? Perhaps it all comes down to ‘winning’ and what it means to ‘win’ within a certain society, and by proxy, who is most interested in ‘winning’ as defined by that society – men or women?

Susan, thanks for your post. I think there are a few things here. One, I have found that many women live in fear of scarcity, and so they just fend for themselves. They look at the bleak numbers and feel that that is what they have to fight for instead of helping to cultivate other opportunities.

I also think that many women want to help, but have been unsure how to do so. That is one of the items I was hoping to address. When people (men or women) know how to get involved, they are more likely to do so.

For all of us, it is about being a part of the solution and doing something about it. 🙂

[…] You may or may not have seen this hugely popular TED Interactive presentation by Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, but in case you haven’t, her message is as relevant as ever: When it comes to leaders in the workplace, we need more women. […]